Culinary tool for transporting food stuff

ABSTRACT

The disclosed device is a food transporting device that enables food transport for cooking with limited spillage and reduced actual, direct contact between user and food objects. The disclosed device comprises a flat base, a rounded end for gripping, and a pair of sidewalls attached to a side of the flat base and extending perpendicularly upward therefrom, the flat base, rounded end and pair of sidewalls defining a holding volume for holding food objects for transport with minimal spillage.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application relates to and claims priority from U.S.Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/428,179 filed Nov. 21,2002.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention generally relates to the field ofmanipulating and transporting food objects for purposes of foodpreparation and cooking.

[0003] Food preparation and cooking generally requires transport of foodobjects from an area where the food objects are manipulated andprocessed to the cooking utensil in which the food is prepared. Anexample of this is moving diced-up meat from a cutting board to a panwhere the meat will cook. In commercial settings, a large amount of foodobjects are transported and often in larger bulk. It is desirable totransport the food objects in a quick and convenient manner withoutspilling and therefore wasting food objects. It is also desirable tomove the food objects with limited, actual contact between the foodobjects and the person. This prevents undesirable transfer of bacteriaand other forms of unwanted contamination from the food objects to theperson and vice a versa.

[0004] Current devices utilized for the transport of food often includesexisting kitchen utensils. It is common to see a cook utilize a knife totransport food objects to a cooking pot or pan. This is an inefficientdevice for transport because there is the risk of cutting oneself oranother with the knife. Also, the knife is not equipped with featuresthat prevent food objects from falling, therefore spillage often occurs.Scoops such as grain scoops are known and used to scoop bulk, drymaterials such as dry grains from one area to another. The problem withthese scoops is they are not made for efficient use in the kitchenbecause they are rather bulky, having a long and sturdy handle, and aredesigned to penetrate into bulk, dry material and transport ascoop-sized quantity. These scoops are not designed to scrape up foodobjects off a flat surface in an efficient manner.

[0005] A food scoop is disclosed in the design patent U.S. Pat. No.D394,371 (Cousins), but the design is limited by the small surface areaof the base portion and has no features to prevent food spillage.Scooping food objects, particularly smaller food objects, with thisdisclosed design will likely lead to regular spillage of food objects,especially in the frantic pace that usually occurs in a commercialkitchen let alone a personal kitchen.

[0006] There still remains a need for a useful and efficient scoop fortransporting food objects in a kitchen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] The present invention addresses the above-mentioned needs in theart and, more specifically, includes devices that can be utilized fortransporting food objects efficiently with limited spillage and goodmaneuverability around a kitchen area. The disclosed device is easy tomaneuver in a kitchen because there is a lack of protruding parts thatwould make the device cumbersome to operate.

[0008] An aspect of the present invention is a food transporting devicecomprising a flat base, a rounded grip terminating an end of the flatbase, a pair of sidewalls attached to the sides of the flat base inperpendicular orientation. The pair of sidewalls extending upward fromthe sides of the flat base. Preferably, the pair of sidewalls has atapered height, which is taller at the end of the flat base with therounded grip and short at the other end, or the open end. Preferably,the height of the pair of sidewalls is level to that of the rounded gripnear that end of the flat base.

[0009] A further aspect of the present invention is a handleless foodscoop for transporting food objects in a convenient manner. “Handleless”is used herein to refer to a device that lacks a protruding handle usedto grip the device. The handleless food scoop comprises a flat base forsupporting food objects with a modified end for gripping and a pair ofsidewalls attached to the sides of the flat base in perpendicularorientation. The modified end of the flat base is curled up and overitself to form a rounded end ranging in shape from a semi-cylindrical tocomplete cylindrical. In an alternative embodiment, the end that iscurled up and over itself is welded onto the flat base to form a closed,hollow cylinder. This modified end of the flat base can be used to gripand maneuver the handleless food scoop.

[0010] These aspects and additional aspects of the present inventionwill be understood by one of ordinary skill upon reviewing the provideddisclosure along with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the foodtransporting device.

[0012]FIG. 2 is a side view of an embodiment of the food transportingdevice.

[0013]FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an alternate embodiment of thefood transporting device.

[0014]FIG. 4 is a side view of an alternative embodiment of the foodtransporting device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] The invention provides a device and method for transporting foodobjects from place-to-place with limited spillage and provides minimal,direct human contact, which reduces the amount of bacterial and otherunwanted contamination. The term “limited spillage” is used to meangenerally no spillage of solid food products during transport using thefood transporting device provided that the food transporting device isnot loaded with food objects beyond its volumetric capacity. The“volumetric capacity” of the food transporting device refers to thevolume defined by the pair of side walls and the closed end of the foodtransporting device, the volume appearing wedge-shaped. The term “openend” is used to mean the end of the flat base that has no physicalbarrier barring access onto the flat base. The “open end” is also on theopposite side of the flat base from the “closed end.” The term “closedend” is used to mean the end of the flat base that is terminated by arounded extension of the flat base, or an end-section of the flat basethat is curved over it.

[0016] An aspect of the present invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and2. A food transporting device 1 is shown comprising a flat base 2, arounded grip 3 terminating one end of the flat base 2, a pair ofsidewalls 4 a and 4 b attached to the sides of the flat base 2 inperpendicular orientation. The rounded grip 3 is preferably an integralextension of the flat base 2 that is curved over itself to form asomewhat cylindrical shape. This arrangement creates a holding volumefor containment of food objects for transport with limited spillage.Spillage of food is limited because of the physical barrier on threesides surrounding the flat base 2, which are the two sidewalls 4 a and 4b and the rounded grip 3. A user is able to scoop up food objects bydirecting the food transporting device 1, open end first, towards andpast the food objects. Once transported to the desired area, the foodobjects are dispensed by tipping the food transporting device 1 so thatthe open end is lowered. This mode of operation enables a user to limitdirect physical contact with the food objects, which reduces the riskbacterial contamination, either from the food objects to the user orvice-a-versa. The loading and dispensing of food objects can be sped upthrough the use of the user's hand to assist food object onto and offthe flat base; however, to avoid contamination, it is preferable tolimit actual, direct contact.

[0017] An alternative embodiment of the present invention is shown inFIGS. 3 and 4. A food transporting device 10 is shown comprising a flatbase 11, a rounded grip 12 terminating one end of the flat base 11, apair of sidewalls 13 a and 13 b attached to the sides of the flat base11 in perpendicular orientation. The rounded grip 12 is preferably anintegral extension of the flat base 11 that is curved over to form acurved end to the flat base 11. This arrangement creates a holdingvolume for containment of food objects for transport with limitedspillage. Spillage of food is limited because of the physical barrier onthree sides surrounding the flat base 11, which are the two sidewalls 13a and 13 b and the rounded grip 12.

[0018] The disclosed food transporting devices can be fabricated from avariety of materials that are general used to form kitchen utensils.Some nonlimiting examples of material that can be used include aluminum,steel, stainless steel, other metal alloys, plastic, and other durable,synthetic polymers. Preferably, the material is nontoxic, durable,inexpensive and can be easily manipulated to the desired shape. Morepreferably, the material used to fabricate the disclosed foodtransporting device is made from either stainless steel or plastic.

What is claimed is:
 1. A food transporting device comprising: a basehaving an open end for receiving food objects, a pair of sidewallsattached to a side of the base and extending upward therefrom to enclosethe base along the sides of the base, a grip extending from an endopposite from open end of the base and enclosing that end of the base,the grip being attached to one of the pair of sidewalls on each side ofthe grip, the base, the grip and the pair of sidewalls defining avolumetric capacity for holding food objects and transporting the foodobjects with limited spillage.
 2. The food transporting device accordingto claim 1, wherein the grip is an integral extension of the base and isformed by curling an end of the base.
 3. The food transporting deviceaccording to claim 2, wherein the grip is welded to the base along theend that is curled over to form the grip.
 4. The food transportingdevice according to claim 1, wherein the pair of sidewalls is tapered sothat the height of the pair of sidewalls is near the height of the gripat closed end of the base and shorter at open end of the base so thatthe volumetric capacity has a wedge shape.
 5. A handleless food scoopfor transporting food objects around the kitchen with reduced spillage,the handleless food scoop comprising: a base for supporting food objectstransferred onto its surface, the base comprising an open end and aclosed end, the closed end being formed from a portion of the base thatis curled over to provide a grip; and a pair of sidewalls extendingupward from a side of the base, the pair of sidewalls being attached toa side of the grip; wherein the base having the grip and the pair ofsidewalls define a volumetric capacity for physically containing foodobjects for transport with limited spillage.
 6. The handleless foodscoop according to claim 5, wherein an end of the grip is welded to thebase.
 7. The handleless food scoop according to claim 5, wherein thepair of sidewalls is tapered so that the height of the pair of sidewallsis near the height of the grip and shorter at the open end of the baseso that the volumetric capacity has a wedge shape.
 8. A method of movingfood objects with limited direct contact by a user by utilizing ahandleless food scoop having a volumetric capacity for holding andtransporting food comprising a flat base having an open end and a closedend, the closed end being formed from a portion of the base that iscurled over to provide a grip, and a pair of sidewalls attached to andextending upward from a side of the base, the pair of sidewalls beingattached to a side of the grip, the method comprising the steps of:sliding the handleless food scoop across a surface supporting foodobjects with the open end of the handleless food scoop facing thedirection of the sliding to scoop up and contain the food objects,transporting the food objects to desired destination by transporting thehandleless food scoop, and dispensing the food objects to the desireddestination with limited direct contact by tipping the open end of thehandless food scoop downward in the direction of the desireddestination.